


someday these flowers will bloom

by embalmers



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-15 10:41:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20864864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/embalmers/pseuds/embalmers
Summary: “I always preferred your paper flowers to the real thing.”





	someday these flowers will bloom

There had been but a few months in her childhood where she had seen real flowers. Those months went by too quickly, but it was enough for her to be captivated by them. A tiny corrugated steel home that rattled with each gust of wind made her anxious to stay inside for too long, that she explored outside instead. Her mother would scream when she was returned but she’d handle that later. First came picking flowers while she could.

Her room consisted of a small desk, an oil lamp and a tiny bed. The flowers that she had been watching over during her daily walks had died with the downpour of rain. She had tried desperately to keep them alive. A glass of water to keep them alive was the same as the flooding outside; she had found out when she came back to dead pansies lying wilted on her desk and no glass of water insight.

Konan regretted yelling at her mother for stealing the glass from her. It was petty, childish. But that’s what she was at the time. Only a month after the flowers had died, she’d become an orphan.

Amegakure was her home and she wouldn’t trade its flaws for anything else. A tower just for her and Pain. Isolated from the outside world. Little conflict now that Hanzo and his supporters were gone. Things felt at peace now. She wished the rest of the world could follow suit.

It wasn’t like when Yahiko was with them, it never would be. But for now, with the quiet moments and the Akatsuki just preparing themselves for their task to come, things were fine.

She sometimes felt like a child again, basking in the warmth of the fire that Yahiko had started for them, eating grilled fish next to her two closest friends. When she saw a child running through the street in a raincoat far too big for them and a paper angel in hand. Upon returning to the tower and having a Pain there waiting for her as she materialised. Whilst she overlooked the city and instead of just greys and dull blues there were warm lights of red coming from shop windows and lamps.

Most of all she loved when both her and Nagato were in Amegakure and he stopped the rain on a Sunday.

There wasn’t harsh sunlight, there wasn’t heat but it was nice to just bask on the edge of a building ledge where no one could see her or hear her and close her eyes to not have rain fall on her.

“You shouldn’t strain yourself.”

Konan only ever found herself saying those words when she was in the presence of Nagato not Pain. Unlike with Pain, who didn’t show anything in the vein of discomfort, when with the him she saw all. The veins around his eyes protruded more and his already disgustingly thin body contorts just the slightest with each sharp intake as much as it’s able to.

And if she said it because she wanted him to not show that rage and power that he’d shown so many times when they were endangered, when Yahiko-

Part of her feared if she would be on the receiving end of it one day. That he would realise she was the cause of his death in the first place. It’s a stupid thought, but guilt followed her from that day onward.

Nagato only slightly turned his head to her, the most movement he could give her.

“It’s fine. I’ll have one of the Pains go with you.”

It was rare she went outside of Amegakure these days, the other Akatsuki members were handling the capture of the tailed beasts but when she did, she didn’t comment on how he always had a path of Pain accompany her.

Distrust? Worry? Surveillance? She couldn’t be sure.

Maybe he wondered the same as to why she stayed by his side.

Along the borders of the Country of Fire, to the south, there was grass. Forests. Flowers. Konan spent so much time in Amegakure she forgot it could be like this outside of it. Rain never ending in both her childhood and now, the village was grey and dreary everyday but the rare Sunday where there was some light and blues. Seeing actual plants and sunshine was a shock.

He eyes drew to the clusters of flowers dotted around the trees. They were already in enemy territory, it didn’t matter. No patrol could get take them down, let alone leave a scratch on them.

Leaving some paper with Pain, she fluttered further into the trees, hearing trickling water from a stream. There were daisies, no bigger than her fingernails, sprinkled in the grass, daffodils mixed among them along with varied red, pink and blue flowers. As she materialised near the water, some paper drifted onto the surface, wetting in a matter of seconds, then sagging.

Konan didn’t notice. She was hesitant to pick the flowers; they would be doomed to death if she did, it seemed cruel.

Hearing a rustle, she watched as Tendo Pain walked slowly over to her. Not nearby, but close enough to watch the scene.

“What is it, Pain?”

Sometimes she registered him as Pain. Sometimes the appearance, especially the Tendo one, she thought of him as Yahiko. Laughable, really. But what throws her off is it’s Nagato who is watching her through those eyes.

He must be missing the outside too, more so than her.

“You didn’t oil your paper.”

Glancing at the river, there were a handful of paper pieces soaked in water scattered over the surface of the water. Looking closer you could see some which had sunk to the bottom. There wasn’t rain, she didn’t need to.

“I didn’t.”

Pain, no, Nagato just looked back. She wasn’t talking to Pain and she never had been.

“Nagato, I’ll bring back some flowers for you.”

He didn’t respond just watched as she picked a few and placed them within her cloak. They would get slightly damaged but that was fine, she wasn’t intending to keep them flourishing, she wanted to press them. Preserve them. Like they preserved Yahiko. Some might call it morbid for them to use his body for this, but she’d say that wasn’t the worst thing they had seen during the war.

There was a calmness as she plucked them out the ground, his gaze on her. He was constantly monitoring her and while some instances it made her on edge, this was one of the few where she didn’t.

“You can just make paper ones.”

“Wouldn’t you like real ones though?”

“I guess so, I don’t see them very often. But…”

Konan looked over the rain beating down hard on the rooftops of Amegakure. Not a splash of green like in the Fire Country. It flourished out there, while in this domain, rain ruled. If there was any greenery left it was dulled out and muddy from the downpour.

It wasn’t like him to hesitate. She took her gaze away and instead fixed it on Nagato.

“But?”

“I always preferred your paper ones to the real thing.”

_“For you.”_

_Dark red hair covered the majority of his face so she couldn’t see his expression well. Just the tilt of his head towards her._

_“There aren’t any flowers around anymore, so I keep them alive with my origami. Here,” she explained. It was perfect really, she enjoyed paper folding and origami and she liked flowers. Put the two together now there aren’t any flowers to be seen and she can enjoy them until a better day finds them. _

_Her hands were tiny but Nagato’s weren’t big either. His were bonier, thinner. Sickly. But that’s what everyone was like these days. Food didn’t just present itself to them. The origami flower in his palm looked sharp, harsh. She could have done a better job, almost wanting to take it out of his grasp in case he cut himself on it._

_“Don’t, I’m scared. I might destroy it.”_

_She didn’t know how to respond but look with guilty eyes and bite inside her cheek. What could she say when she also was afraid of his powers? His capabilities? Yahiko was strong, he didn’t mind saying that they’d keep him at bay. She wasn’t sure she could. But she would have to, Yahiko insisted that she be there to support him. If she didn’t know how she didn’t mention that to him._

_“I won’t let you. You won’t.”_

_Then she saw him smile slightly. So, she returned it. Nagato didn’t smile easily so she took it gratefully. But as she stood up to leave, his skeletal hands clutched around the paper flower and slightly crumpled it. _

_“Ah…”_

_Milk colored hands holding crushed eggshell blues. She couldn’t call it a flower anymore._

_Konan would have to make another._

Never had she imagined she would be the last of them alive. That they’d all die together, or she might be the first to had run through her mind. That if she allowed herself to hope foolishly, they could all make it out alive to the end.

Madara would come. She knew and she had to prepare.

But for now, she could stand on the ledge of a building, where no one could see or hear her and breathe in deeply the village she loved. Naruto would bring peace and she would be there to make sure that Yahiko and Nagato’s deaths weren’t in vain. That their dreams would be achieved.

The only difference now was on Sundays, Nagato was not there to stop the rain anymore.

She’d been left with their dead bodies, the pressed flowers she’d tried to gift him and rain wetting her hair where she stood.

**Author's Note:**

> im rewatching naruto in the year 2019 so this was inevitable  
im stealing the phrase "bleak and whack" from syn and slapping it on this too
> 
> i dont have anyone checking for grammar/spelling errors so sorry if there are any  
thanks for reading!


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